This invention is not a result from federally sponsored research or development.
Endotracheal intubation plays an important role in airway management. Failure to maintain a patient""s airway for a few minutes may result in serious consequence:brain damage even death.
Difficult endotracheal intubation is often a problem in anesthetic unit or intensive care unit of a hospital when trying to intubate unconscious patients or patients whose epiglotis and vocal cords can not be seen directly by the physician due to abnormal anatomical or pathological condition.
Usual practice to facilitate difficult endotracheal intubation involves using flexible fiberoptic bronchoscope to visualize a patient""s pharynx area. But draw-back of this usual practice is the lack of manoeuvrability of endotracheal tube(E.T.).
Such manoeuvrability is very much needed for guiding E.T. into patient""s trachea, but a flexible fiberoptic bronchoscope alone does not have the rigidity to provide such manoeuvrability.
A compromised method had been suggested: a regular solid-wire intubation stylet and the insertion probe of flexible fiberoptic bronchoscope are parallelly put into a conventional E.T., in order to simultaneously obtain manoeuvrability of E.T. and visualization of patient""s pharynx area. But such method requires a much larger than usual E.T. to accommodate both the insertion probe and solid-wire stylet in parallel. Quite often a much larger E.T. is unacceptable due to patient""s age, size and clinical condition.
Several intubation aids have been described in recent years, but they are either complicated or expensive. Most of them are of specialized design and not to be used in combination with popular instruments in hospitals: conventional E.T. and conventional flexible fiberoptic bronchoscope.
Much effort had been made to create an inexpensive and effective endotracheal intubation aid which can be used in combination with conventional flexible fiberoptic bronchoscope but does not require much larger conventional E.T., and will make the insertion probe of the flexible fiberoptic bronchoscope as firm, preformable and manipulatable as a regular solid-wire intubation stylet that intubators are familiar with.
In recent years, several US patents that tried to solve such problem had been issued:
1. U.S. Pat. No. 5,058,577-Gary Six
2. U.S. Pat. No. 5,327,881-Christopher M. Greene
3. U.S. Pat. No. 5,431,152-Gary H. Flam
4. U.S. Pat. No. 5,607,386-Gary H. Flair
5. U.S. Pat. No. 5,733,241-Geoge H. King
6. U.S. Pat. No. 5,921,917-Thomas C. Barthel
The present invention provides a cost-effective intubation aid that includes a petalled tubular stylet, a medial member, and a compress device.When used in combination with conventional endotracheal tube(E.T.) and conventional flexible fiberoptic bronchoscope, the present invention will make the insertion probe of flexible fiberoptic bronchoscope as firm, preformble and manipulatable as a regular solid-wire stylet. Hence it will simultaneously provide manoeuvrability of E.T. and visualization of patient""s pharynx area, so as to facilitate difficult endotracheal intubations.
The petalled tubular stylet is made of non-toxic malleable material and manufactured to have smooth surface and edges.
The proximal end of petalled tubular stylet is split into multiple longitudinal petals of certain length. Total number of petals is recommended to be 3 to 12, and at least one petal must be properly dimensioned to be easily bent outward.
When such petalled tubular stylet is put inside a conventional E.T., the properly dimensioned or, so to speak, selected petal can be bent outward and folded onto the outside surface of E.T., to maintain the position of distal end of petalled tubular stylet relative to distal end of E.T.
The insertion probe of a conventional flexible fiberoptic bronchoscope usually includes fiberoptic bundles, insufflation channel and tip control wires. Such an insertion probe is wrapped around by the medial member, then both are put into the petalled proximal end of the petalled tubular stylet. The medial member will be at petalled proximal end, and the tip of insertion probe will pass through the distal end of the petalled tubular stylet.
The medial member is made of non-toxic resilient material, and when inwardly pressed by the compress device, it will frictionally engage the insertion probe to the petalled tubular stylet, and keep the tip of insertion probe in proper position relative to the distal end of petalled tubular stylet.
When the present invention is used in combination with a conventional flexible fiberoptic bronchoscope and a conventional E.T., the petalled tubular stylet will provide proper rigidity and manipulatability for guiding the E.T. into patient""s trachea to a desired location, according to the view seen by the intubator using the flexible fiberoptic bronchoscope, on a monitor screen or via an eye-piece.